The NGOs and Civil Societies of The watching groups of IFI watchnet.
IFIwatchnet is a groundbreaking initiative in international NGO networking, currently in its second year of operation. It connects organisations worldwide which are monitoring international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, the IMF, and regional development banks. Formed in response to a call by civil society groups to maximise the effectiveness of their communications and networking efforts, it is rapidly developing into a key tool for ever increasing degrees of collaboration between IFIwatching groups at national, regional and international levels. With nearly 60 organisations from 27 different countries in every region of the world, it has huge potential to increase the ability of civil society to make global governance institutions accountable to the people they serve.
IFIwatchnet is not an NGO and it does not undertake monitoring or campaiging work itself, rather it supports the work undertaken by its participants. It aims to:
- Pool independent information about IFIs from a broad range of civil society sources and make it easier for people to find what they need;
- Improve communication between IFI-watchers, increasing mutual awareness of outputs and collaboration on activities;
- Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IFI watching organisations through new information sharing approaches.
IFIwatchnet participant organisations monitor one or more of these global and regional IFIs: (full text).
Documents;
The IFIblog;
Upcoming events;
Two Newsletters: 1) The Bankwatch Mail, 2) The IFIs LA Monitor Newsletter;
Contact.
Users of IFIwatchnet:
- IFIwatchnet is for anyone interested in the activities of the IFIs and the impact of those activities eg civil society organisations, policy makers, activists, journalists or researchers;
- It will help these users find independent and critical perspectives via the internet that otherwise might be hard to locate.
Participants in IFIwatchnet, IFIwatchers:
- Participants are those organisations actively involved in monitoring the activities of the IFIs and committed to working more closely together;
- There are now over 50 participating organisations from around the world, and this number continues to grow;
- IFIwatchnet is particularly interested in expanding the space for the voices of IFIwatching organisations from the South;
- Participating organisations do not need to have a website. (full text).